Alien Specialists
by GusTheAlien916
Summary: Ax, the Animorph's resident alien, has been captured by Torchwood and taken to Cardiff. Will he have to escape on his own, or will the Animorphs rescue him? There is some Marco/Ax, but it's not the main focus of the story.
1. Chapter 1

My name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill.

And I am not human.

As the humans say, I just wanted to 'get that out of the way'.

I am a part of the Andalite race, a fact that I am very proud of. Normally I wouldn't be doing something as frivolous as writing down my thoughts and 'adventures' but something very odd has just happened to my human friends and me.

But, more on that later.

First, I should explain who my friends are, and our backstory.

That is proper writing format, I believe.

I am a part of a group called 'The Animorphs'. One of my friends, Marco came up with the name.

My five human friends and I are fighting a war. Not a typical human war, with tanks and missiles and guns and the like. No, this war is more secret, but just as deadly as the human form of battle.

Who are we fighting, you may be wondering? A reasonable question, since a war without an enemy would be quite pointless.

We, the Animorphs, are fighting the Yeerks.

The Yeerks are the filth of the galaxy, the abominations. The disgusting, low life criminals. They are a very smart race, though half of what they've accomplished thus far would not be possible without the Andalites (again, more on that later).

The Yeerks are not large. They are not physically threatening. So why have they ruined so many lives, taken over so many worlds?

Because they are parasites.

Similar to Earth tapeworms, though they more resemble slugs in appearance. But, unlike the tapeworm, the Yeerks don't live in your stomach or intestines.

They live inside your brain.

They take over your mind.

Make you a prisoner.

You are unable to control yourself.

Unable to move by yourself.

Unable to speak, unless the Yeerk does it for you.

Not able to do anything but watch as the one Yeerk inside your brain betrays your entire family.

By putting Yeerks inside their heads.

And through it all, you can hear it laughing, mocking you.

You attempt to break free, but in vain. The Yeerk has you. And there is no escape.

Human, Hork-Bajir, Taxxon, Gedd, Leeran

Andalite.

No race is safe from the torrent of Yeerk invasion.

And that is why my friends and I fight.

How do we fight? How do five humans and an alien fight the greatness of the Yeerk Empire?

By using Andalite technology. Technically, they are using it illegally, and every time they do use it, they are breaking about 20 Andalite laws, but I haven't told them that. You see, my brother, who was also my prince, is dead. He died a hero, attempting one last time to save those whom he cared about.

He gave five human youths the Escafil Device. The most advanced piece of technology the Andalites had at the time.

The Escafil Device (or the 'blue box', as my friends call it) gives any organism the ability to morph. To change into any animal they can touch and whose DNA they can acquire. It is truly amazing.

And with this power, we fight.

Now, I believe I'll begin my story, the story about one of the most interesting adventures I believe the Animorphs has ever had.

It started at the mall...

The mall. A place of human entertainment. A place of very loud music, human artificial skins, and food.

Food. Oh, food.

Before we go any further, perhaps I should explain what my natural appearance looks like.

First of all, I am blue. A very nice color of blue, if I do say so myself. My friends tell me I look like a centaur, a creature from human mythology. Basically, a human torso stuck on a horse's body. I have seen a picture of a centaur. There is a likeness there, except I believe our differences outweigh our similarities. For one thing, centaurs are not completely covered in fur, whereas my blue fur is everywhere. Centaurs have human arms; therefore they have five fingers on each hand, as opposed to Andalites, who have seven on each one. Andalites have two useful eye stalks atop our heads, enabling us to see in every direction all the time. Centaurs don't have these. Centaurs have mouths. Andalites don't. We eat through our hooves, the way any sensible creature should.

The big difference, I believe, is our tails. Centaurs have a normal, basically useless horse tail. Andalites have a long, muscular tail, atop which sits a blade. We Andalites are very fast with our tail blades. I could probably slice a human in half with only one swipe. Maybe two. I tend to overestimate myself on occasion.

Like I was saying, I was at the mall, with my friends. In my human morph, of course. My natural form could possibly cause a disturbance. My human morph was created from the DNA of four of my friends. I'm told that I am good looking, but I really can't tell.

Now, you are perhaps wondering about my friends. My human friends. It might be beneficial to you to get to know them, so I shall do my best to describe them.

The leader of the Animorphs is Prince Jake. He is constantly telling me that he is not really a prince and to stop calling him that, but since he is the leader, I must treat him with respect. Prince Jake is powerfully built, built like a ruler. His hair color is referred to as 'dark blonde' or 'light brown', I believe. He truly possesses all the qualities of a leader, and if he was an Andalite, I believe he would at least make War Prince status.

Next is Rachel. Rachel is a true warrior. You may not know it to look at her, but she is a fierce fighter. She loves battle. Lives for it. I worry about her sometimes. Sometimes I wonder if she loves it too much. Rachel is tall, taller than all the others, except Prince Jake. She has blonde hair and is considered beautiful by her peers.

Cassie is a unique individual. She is the gentle one, the caring, considerate one. She loves animals, and is running a veterinary clinic with her father. Cassie has somewhat of a special relationship with Prince Jake. Sometimes, I find it humorous watching them interact with one another. They are a bit, as humans put it, 'awkward'. Cassie is short and stocky. Her hair color and skin color are somewhat similar, her hair black and her skin brown.

Now for Tobias. Tobias is a very tricky case. You see, morphing has a downside. Stay in one morph two hours, you stay forever. No going back. Tobias is trapped in the body of a red-tailed hawk, forever. Though recently, he reacquired his morphing powers back and was allowed to travel back in time to collect the DNA of himself. An all-powerful being called the Elimist did that. Tobias is the only person on this planet that I can consider my true shorm. Shorm is an Andalite word, meaning tail blade. A shorm is someone you can trust to put their tail blade against your throat. Humans might call it 'best friends'.

Lastly, Marco. What to say about Marco? Marco is...amazing. He is perfect. Smart, handsome, and funny. He is short, but that doesn't matter. That does not deter my feelings for him. My slightly…more than friends feelings for him. I shouldn't be having these feelings-homosexuality is considered a crime on the Andalite planet-but I cannot help it. I've never had these kind of feelings for anyone before, and it worries me. He's a human, for goodness sake! I am an Andalite. I should be above these things.

I believe I have strayed off topic.

I should get back to the story.

The mall. We were all there. Prince Jake, Rachel, Marco, Cassie, and Tobias and I in our human morphs.

Surprisingly, we were not there for a mission or a meeting with Erek the Chee, or any other Yeerk related activity. We were just 'hanging out', as my human friends would say. Just having a good time. And it was a good time.

A very good time.

There were cinnamon buns.

Therefore, it would've been impossible not to have a good time.

Have I mentioned my love for cinnamon buns? I do have a certain fondness for them. And who can blame me? They are wonderful creations of man, one of the few beautiful things he has not managed to screw up or turn into a fighting machine.

If my estimation of human comedy is correct, I believe that would be considered humorous, humans using cinnamon buns for war.

I certainly would not find it funny. It would be a waste of a perfectly good cinnamon bun.

Speaking of which, I was in the process of getting one. Rachel and Prince Jake were on a 'food run'. We were all seated in the food court, a place surrounded by delicious human restaurants and food shops.

One of which was the wondrous place known as Cinnabon.

I could see them returning, Rachel holding the tray that contained our food, Prince Jake tucking a few bills of money into the pocket of his jeans.

The rest of us, Cassie, Tobias, Marco and I, were seated around a table in the food court. The others were chatting freely. I was watching the tray in Rachel's hands.

When the two arrived at our table, Rachel, learning from experience, gave me my cinnamon bun first. Then, she set to handing out to rest of the items.

My friends had informed me that my eating habits were 'disturbing' to other humans, and that I should learn to eat 'properly'. I attempted to tell them that I was merely enjoying my food, but they did not seem to want to listen.

Cassie cleared her throat, catching my attention. She handed me a fork.

"Thank you, Cassie. Ie." I told her.

I believe I have mentioned that Andalites don't have mouths. I have also mentioned how wonderful food is. But, I haven't said anything about speech. Andalites communicate using telepathy. Some species are deeply bothered by this fact. I think the human way of speaking should be more bothersome. So strange and loud. The mouth sounds were fun to play with, though, a habit I had gotten into ever since acquiring this morph.

I sensed the group watching me as I carefully peeled away the first layer of cinnamon bun. Using the side of my fork, I cut the strip in half, then speared it with the tongs, stuffing it into my mouth as quickly as possible.

"Wow." Rachel commented. "I'm impressed."

"Yeah, Ax. Compared to your usual eating habits, this is quite the improvement." Marco agreed,

I felt my face turn red. "Cassie has been helping me with my manners. Anners."

I looked up slightly, and saw Marco turn away. Had he been staring at me?

Wasn't important, I told myself. Wasn't important.

But had he?

Well, of course he had. So had all the others. My eating manners had greatly improved. Humans tended to stare at things that were different than they were used to.

Still…

The rest of our afternoon at the mall passed without any incident, which for us was very rare.

I think we all knew, though, that this brief moment of tranquility wasn't going to last long.

"There they are!" a voice I didn't recognize called from behind me.

We all spun around wildly. The blood was pumping through my human veins, a feeling I had grown accustomed to. I was ready for battle.

Behind us, though, was not the familiar yet repulsive sight of Visser Three in his human morphs, or his right hand man, Chapman, or any of the other Yeerks we knew. It was a man, a very sturdily built and handsome man in a long trench coat. He was holding a piece of technology in his hands and pointing to us. At his side was a short woman with long, dark hair and large eyes.

"Run!" Prince Jake commanded.

"Every time we try to be normal…" Marco muttered as he turned and sprinted after him.


	2. Chapter 2

We sprinted for the exit, pushing past people and knocking over bags. When we finally made it to the door, the man in the trench coat yelled something, probably a warning to his companions. Two men, one tall and in a suit, the other smaller and thinner, tried to grab us. We had experience at this sort of thing though, and struggled out of their holds.

"Dumpster, behind the mall." Tobias gasped. Tobias was good at this sort of thing, being a bird all the time. He was very observant.

"Bird morphs. Go!" Prince Jake called.

He sprinted for the Dumpster, with the rest of us behind him, and our pursuers hot on our tail. If we had tails in this morph.

As soon as we were under cover, the humans and I began our morphs. The others only had to morph to bird, or in Tobias's case, demorph. I, on the other hand, had to demorph back to Andalite, then to bird. It was impossible to change from one morph directly into another.

My human friends were already almost into their bird morphs when I was fully Andalite.

I believe it was then when Prince Jake realized he had made a bad call.

/Ax! Back to human! Remorph!/ he snapped in thought speak.

Too late.

I saw the thinner, smaller man that had tried to grab us before tear around the corner and stop dead.

We were all silent for a moment.

"You….you are magnificent." he breathed.

That wasn't what I had expected at all.

/What do we do?/ I heard Cassie whisper.

/Attack./ Rachel immediately replied. /Dive bomb them. Get some altitude./

Just then, the man in the trench coat followed his comrade around the corner, gun drawn.

"Well, hello there…" he exclaimed.

Out of my stalk eyes, I saw my friends take to the air.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The man in the trench coat warned, turning the gun towards them. I took the opportunity, swinging my tail, ready to knock the man unconscious.

I didn't see the tall man in the suit until it was too late.

The last thing I heard was Marco, yelling my name.

I woke up what felt like hours later. My head throbbed. Keeping my eyes closed, I ran a full check on my body. Everything seemed to be in order. I could hear people talking in another room. Where was I? My arms, legs, and tail were strapped to a table, I knew that. Time to look around.

Even though they felt like human lead, I forced my eyelids open.

The first thing I saw was white. White everywhere. There was a slanting wall in front of me, with stairs leading up either side. A table full of human medical supplies lay in front of me. Was that supposed to scare me? They would have to try harder.

I was almost sure it wasn't the Yeerks. They wouldn't be using human supplies. Plus, if this was the Yeerks, I'd be waking up with one of them in my head.

I strained my ears, trying to hear what the people in the other room were saying.

"We can't just keep him here forever!" a woman's voice exclaimed.

"Gwynn, calm down. We're just going to study him, then we'll wipe his memory and send him on his way." A man's voice said reassuringly.

Memory wipe? I didn't like the sound of that at all.

The woman called Gwynn snorted. "Don't give me that, Jack. You know as well as I do that you won't be able to just send him on his way. He's an alien, and that's what this place is all about. Finding and catching aliens. Well, this case is different, isn't it? It's obvious he's been here for quite a while, so either he can't go home or he doesn't want to. He isn't a threat to our planet, because if he was, he'd have done something about it by now-"

"Not necessarily" the man named Jack muttered.

"-and it's obvious he's highly intelligent, from what Owen's found out! He-"

"As much as I'd like to see this rant to the end, I gotta butt in here." A second man's voice, Owen's I presumed, cut in. "I did a full brain scan on our alien here. His brain is very, very advanced. He's a genius, by our standards. So intelligent, I don't think even our best mind wipes would work on him. And from what I've gathered, he's still pretty young. Not even finished growing yet."

"If we can't mind wipe him, what should we do?" a third man's voice joined the conversation.

"We could make him our ally, learn from him, provide him shelter." another woman's voice put in.

"I think that's our best bet. And, if worse comes to worst, we could always…" Jack trailed off.

"Kill him?" Owen asked.

"As a last resort. But, we don't know if we'll have to yet. He should be awake by now. Let's go meet our alien. Tosh, Gwynn, you guys haven't seen him yet, have you?" Jack asked.

"None of us really have gotten the chance to study his physique yet." Owen grumbled.

Jack didn't make an answer, but a second later, I heard footsteps approaching the room I was being kept in. I lay perfectly still, my stalk eyes swiveling towards the noise.

I knew they had entered my room when I heard a quiet gasp.

"Now this is what aliens are supposed to look like. Why don't we deal with aliens like these more often?" the second woman, probably Tosh remarked.

"Is he awake?" the third man asked.

My stalk eyes twitched towards the sound.

"I'd say yes." Jack muttered.

Now, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't afraid, but I wasn't going to let them show it. I closed my main eyes again, and heard one of the men walk over to face me.

"No mouth." Owen said. "Wonder how he eats? Kinda funny looking, too."

I decided to snap open my eyes and look him full in the face, just to see how he'd react.

Owen jumped back slightly, with a yelp. I made another quick decision then, to pretend I had just woken up, and had not heard any of their conversation. Giving my legs a jerk, I thrashed my midsection and tail, looking around frantically with my stalk eyes.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa" Jack said, coming over to me. "Calm down, calm down, okay? We're not gonna hurt you. We want to help you. Just calm down."

His words did have a soothing effect on me. I ceased my thrashing, continuing to pant. With my stalk eyes, I saw the others watching with interest.

/Let me go./ I demanded.

"Telekinesis." The third man, the one in the suit, commented. "Having no mouths, I guess you have to be able to communicate somehow, right?

"So, you do speak English." Jack murmured, ignoring him.

/I do./ I replied shortly.

"What is your name?" Gwynn asked me.

I said nothing, instead shifting my arms. The constraints were getting uncomfortable.

Jack noticed my movement. "Do you have any weapons?" he asked me.

"Jack you can't seriously be thinking this. He could be dangerous!" Owen snapped.

"Do you have any weapons?" Jack repeated, keeping his eyes on me.

/No,/ I told him. /I don't/

"Owen." Jack instructed.

When Owen hesitated, Jack gave him a look, much like the looks I had seen Prince Jake give to Rachel and Marco.

The man sighed and crossed the room, stopping at a computer. He pushed a few buttons, and my arm constraints fell away. Immediately, I rose up on my elbows, now able to take in my captors' appearances much better.

Jack was sturdily built, with light brown hair streaked with blond. He looked much older than he was, but his face was not unkind. He resembled Prince Jake, in a way.

Gwynn was short and feminine, her hair dark brown and long. She had a gap between her front teeth. She reminded me of Cassie.

Owen had a very large mouth. That was the first thing I noticed about him. He had short brown hair and a slight frame. He reminded me of Marco, except slightly less attractive.

Tosh was Asian, and very tough looking. She reminded me of Rachel a bit, actually. She was fiddling with some piece of human technology, so I assumed she was the 'techy' as humans call it.

The third man, the one whose name I did not know yet was the tallest, wearing a black, neatly pressed suit. He looked very uptight, and slightly distant. Different from the rest. A bit like Tobias.

I also noticed that he and Jack frequently exchanged glances.

This group of humans reminded me very much of my Animorph friends.

It was clear that Jack was the leader, but Andalite custom required me to ask.

/Who is your prince?/ I asked them.

"Our prince?" Gwynn asked.

/Your leader. Your commander./ I explained.

They all looked at Jack.

Of course, Prince Jake was my one and only prince, but it was good to know who the leader was.

Now that I had gotten that out of the way, it was time to begin planning my escape.

"Alright." Jack said, getting my attention. "We're going to let you out of your bonds now, alright? Just-don't attack us. We can defend ourselves, if necessary."

They were going to let me loose? Did they not see my dangerous tail blade? Had they not paid attention when Owen had mentioned my advanced brain?

Either they were very stupid, or they were very confident in their weapons.

I hoped for the former.

"Jack." Owen protested. "Jack, this is crazy. He's dangerous. We don't know what he's capable of."

"I'm going to have to go with Owen on this one." Tosh agreed.

Jack glanced at me, his eyes traveling over my face, then my tail blade.

"I trust him." he finally said.

There was a moment of stunned silence.

"You trust him?" Owen asked. You don't even know this freak's name!"

/Aximilli./ I said, without realizing it.

"Huh?" Gwynn queried.

Well, I couldn't back out now.

/Aximilli Esgarrouth Isthill. That is my name./

"Axim-what?" Owen asked.

I sighed. Humans often had trouble pronouncing my full name.

/You may call me Ax, if necessary./

Jack smiled a bit. "See? I know his name. Now, Owen, if you will."

Owen paused, looking over me from behind. I swiveled my stalk eyes to return the look. We held each other's gaze for a moment. Then, the man ran a hand through his hair and pushed another button on his computer.

The bonds on my legs and tail snapped off. Free at last. Human restraints were really very annoying.

The position I had been holding had been getting very uncomfortable. I bent and stretched my legs, enjoying the feeling. I felt their eyes on me as I did the same to my tail.

Perhaps I was milking it a bit, but I wanted these humans to see who they were dealing with.

Of course, Jack seemed quite confident. It was probably better to play along with them until an opportunity came along.


	3. Chapter 3

"Now," Jack began, "just warning you, all of us are armed with alien weaponry, and we do know how to use them, so no funny business, alright?"

There went my stupidity theory. I decided to attempt to appeal to them

/You all haven't caused my any harm, why would I attempt to attack you?/ I inquired. Then I pushed my upper body upwards and swung my legs over the table. I felt the humans in the room tense up a bit more as I got to my feet.

"You'd be surprised how many aliens like yourself have attacked us with no reason" Owen sneered.

I turned my head to face him, while keeping my stalk eyes on the others. It was then that I realized something. Their disorganized manner, the uneasy way they looked at me, Owen's snappy replies.

They were scared. They had never dealt with something like me before. This gave me comfort.

Then I looked over at Jack, at the look of complete control and sureness on his face, and my comfort melted away a little.

Ignoring Owen, Jack addressed me, looking me straight in my main eyes.

"Who are you? Where do you come from? What do you want with Earth?" he demanded.

I stiffened, and their reactions showed that they noticed it. I couldn't reveal such information to a group of humans I had just met, and who were keeping me hostage. True, I felt a compelling urge to trust these people, which is why I was acting so civil towards them and hadn't attempted a break out yet, but I just couldn't tell them.

I drew my tail closer around me, in a more battle ready position.

/That doesn't concern you./ I replied.

Jack nodded. "Right. Well, seeing as you are obviously a form of highly intelligent alien that could most definitely be a threat to Earth, I believe it does concern us."

I folded my arms across my chest. /My people want nothing from your dirty planet./ I began. Then a thought occurred to me. These people I was dealing with were obviously trained to deal with various alien types…they might make valuable allies against the Yeerks. But I still didn't know for sure whether or not they were already in alliance with the Yeerks yet. Best not mention them yet.

'Keep your answers short and quick, Aximilli. You'll find some way to escape soon' I reassured myself.

"How do we know that for sure?" Tosh asked.

/Because if we had wanted it, we would have taken it a long time ago./ I snapped.

There were a few moments of silence.

Then Jack turned to Owen. "Owen, didn't you say you wanted to get some blood samples?"

Owen broke off his glare towards me to glance at Jack. "Yeah, I did"

Jack looked at me for my consent. "Would it be possible if we could draw some blood from you? If it isn't lethal or acid or anything."

I paused. Should I let them stick a needle in me? Normally, I wouldn't allow it, but like I mentioned earlier, I felt an odd sort of trust towards these humans.

"What, you afraid of needles?" Owen sneered as I hesitated.

That made up my mind.

/Not at all./ I replied cooly, sticking my arm out. /Take however much you need; I have two hearts to produce more./

I saw Jack snap his head around, diverting his gaze from the man in the suit. "Two hearts? You said two, am I right?"

I was a bit confused. Surely these humans had encountered aliens with more or less organs than the normal human body possessed before?

I noticed the members of his team giving him odd looks as well.

/Yes. Two hearts./ I told him.

Jack gave me a look I could not decipher, then turned away, muttering: "…probably nothing."

He pointed at Gwynn and the third man. "Gwynn, Ianto, stay with Owen. Tosh, with me."

Ianto. That was his name.

Then the man exited the room, followed by the shorter woman.

Gwynn gave her two companions a questioning look. "What was that all about, with the two hearts?"

"Beats me." Ianto replied. "You gonna take its blood or what?" he asked Owen.

Highly offended at being called 'it', I twitched my tail threateningly, glaring at the tall man.

Owen shot Ianto a warning look, then nodded "Yup. I'm getting there. Just gotta get my stuff clean."

As he set to work doing that, my attention was drawn to Gwynn, who was studying me closely. Her similarities to Cassie were quite unnerving. It was then that I remembered the Animorphs, my friends. They must be worried about me. What had happened behind the Dumpster? I remember being knocked out…Marco yelling my name…then what? How had they gotten me here?

And another thought, where was 'here'?

/Pardon me./ I spoke out.

"Yes?" Gwynn replied, after a moment. I had expected silence.

/Where am I?/

Owen laughed. "Bit late for that question, mate. With your level of intellect, I expected that to be your first question."

"Owen." Gwynn said in a warning tone. She turned back to me, looking a bit friendlier. "You're in Cardiff at the moment."

Noticing my blank look, she elaborated a bit more. "England."

My mind flashed back to the World Atlas that Cassie had given me. I had studied the map of countries and continents long into the night.

England. That's why their voices were so different from my friends' voices! They had a different tone to them. An 'accent', I believe the word was. I struggled to remember anything else I could about England.

One thing I knew, it wasn't America. America, I had learned, was where my friends lived. England was across an ocean, I believed.

An ocean away. How was I going to get back?

"You alright there?" Gwynn's voice cut into my thoughts. I blinked. She was watching me with a worried expression on her face. I glanced at the other two. Owen was still getting equipment ready, and Ianto was standing by the door, watching me closely.

/Fine./ I replied shortly.

"You do know where England is, don't you, Blue Guy?" Owen called.

Blue Guy?

/My name is Aximilli, and yes, I know where England is./ I told him.

"If you don't mind me asking," Gwynn began, cutting Owen off. "how did you get to Earth?"

I paused. It seemed like a harmless question. I could probably answer it without revealing any private information.

/I crashed./ I told her. Short and quick.

"Your spaceship?" Gwynn inquired.

I thought back to the Dome I had crashed in. Not exactly a spaceship in itself…

/More or less./ I finally settled upon.

Gwynn looked like she wanted to ask more, but this time, Owen cut her off.

"Alright. We should be ready. Hold out your arm." Owen instructed me.

I complied. Then I had yet another thought.

Their equipment was quite high tech. Not just for human standards, either. Of course, it paled in comparison to the Andalite technology or even Yeerk tech, but for humans, this was very impressive. They obviously had alien allies that had supplied them with information.

But that wasn't my thought. If their technology was so advanced, it would probably be able to detect trace amounts of animal DNA in my blood from morphing.

I'd have to come up with an excuse. If I wasn't willing to tell them the name of my species, I definitely couldn't reveal one of our most secret technologies.

I barely noticed the needle going into my arm, or felt Owen draw my blood. I did hear Gwynn exclaim, "It's blue!" when my blood entered the syringe.

"Blue-green, actually." Ianto observed.

When Owen had filled the syringe with my blood, he moved to put a pad on the spot where he had stabbed me with the needle, to stem the blood flow.

I had been distracted, though, into my own thoughts. When I saw him move quickly towards my arm with a white thing I could not identify, I will admit it startled me.

My tail blade was up against his throat before he could move any closer.

He froze. I froze. Gwynn froze. Ianto drew his gun and pointed it at my head.

We all stayed that way for a few seconds. Then I let my breath out, using an old Andalite trick to calm myself down. I slowly removed my tail blade from Owen's throat.

/My apologies./ I said, seeing the look of fear in Owen's eyes. /You startled me./

He held my gaze for a moment, then nodded. I jerked my arm away, pressing the fingers of my other hand to the needle wound.

Owen stepped back, away from me, taking the syringe of my blood to the computer he had been using.

Gwynn cleared her throat. "Right. Well, the scans will probably take a while-how long, Owen?"

"About twenty minutes" Owen replied, glancing back at her. "Give or take… another twenty minutes."

"What do we do with him until then?" Ianto asked.

I did not like his style of speaking about me as if I wasn't a sentient being. I said nothing though.

"We can't put him in the holding cells, they're all full." Gwynn mused.

Full? With what?

"Guess we'll just have to keep him here." Ianto shrugged.

"Oh, come on. I'm sure a guy like him can handle a Weevil." Owen scoffed, with a flippant wave of his hand. "We can put him in with Janet; she's the most civil one. They'll probably have a nice discussion."

Owen sent me a slightly alarming grin, causing me to wonder if he was putting me in harm's way on purpose, as revenge for defending myself so violently. I held my head high, refusing to be intimidated by him.

Gwynn paused. "I think we should ask Jack before-"

"Jack's busy." Owen interrupted. "He'll be fine! Come on, let's take him down there."

Before I could do anything, a pair of handcuffs was attached to my arms. I didn't struggle, but instead kept my gaze level, staring at Owen with my main eyes.

My tail was tied to my right hind leg with a rope, and Owen jerked his head to Ianto. The tall man hesitated for a few seconds, giving Owen a slightly distrusting look…then walked over and grabbed my arm. I flinched at the contact. Andalites aren't exactly fond of extensive touching. I saw Ianto take his gun out of the holster, and felt Gwynn move up to stand next to me. Owen beckoned them, and Ianto led me to the door.

As I stepped out the door, I was met with another room. I was given no time to study it though, as I was immediately jerked into another room.

After going down a winding stairwell, I was confronted with a long hallway, with rooms lining the sides. These rooms were translucent in front, so I was able to see inside. We passed a room, and it was then that I got my first glance at a 'Weevil'

The creature was built like a human, standing upright with two legs and arms. It had no tail I could make out, and was dressed in a blue jumpsuit. The creatures face was exceedingly ugly. It was covered in short, wiry hairs, like an Earth pig. It had small beady eyes, no nose to speak of, and a large mouth. As it opened its mouth to emit a sort of hissing noise, I saw it had sharp fangs.

We passed three more rooms, each with these 'Weevils' inside. It was obvious that they were alien. And I seriously doubted their real name was 'Weevils'

The room I was to be put in was darker than the others. The Weevil that was inside (Janet, was it not?) was nowhere to be seen.

I found myself apprehensive, but not scared. I had taken on more dangerous creatures than Weevils. As Ianto cut away the rope securing my tail to my leg, I briefly contemplated knocking him out and attempting escape. But Owen and Gwynn still had guns, and I didn't know where Jack or Tosh were. Plus, then I would be in an unfamiliar city, and this group of humans would no doubt try to track me down. It was too risky. I did snap my tail back, though. Not close enough to hurt anyone, but close enough to let them know I was capable of it.

Owen huffed unhappily (after jumping back about a foot) as he unlocked my handcuffs. Then he slid the door open, armed with a cattle prod I hadn't noticed he had.

"Janet," he said to the darkness, "meet Ax."

So he did know my name.

Ianto stepped to the side of the door to allow me to step through. One corner of the room was darker than the rest, and I suspected that was where Janet was lurking.

The door slid shut behind me.

"Play nice, kids." I heard Owen mutter, making me wish the door wasn't closed, so perhaps I could take another swing at him.

I watched as the three humans exited the room, with Gwynn frequently shooting worried glances back at me.

A hissing sound startled me. It wasn't coming from the corner that was darker than the rest of the room (the left one). I tracked the noise to the opposite corner. My stalk eyes squinted to see the creature hiding there, but it was too dark.

I didn't want to turn around, for fear of provoking the Weevil to attack me.

The creature needed no such encouragement though.

It leapt at me suddenly, teeth bared ferociously, arms outstretched. I thanked my natural Andalite reflexes and military training as I dodged out of the way.

'Janet' hit the ground, sprang back onto its feet, spun around, and bared its teeth at me. I snapped my tail a few times, getting it limbered up. The creature noticed my battle ready stance with narrowed eyes, then copied my action, crouching down to prepare for another spring.

/Let us dance, as the humans say./ I muttered, shifting my weight to my back legs in preparation for the battle.


	4. Chapter 4

The Weevil, deciding it could not wait any longer, sprang at me again. I applied the same maneuver that I had the last time, sidestepping the attack. I even managed to cut the beast on the shoulder with my tail blade.

This continued for a while, with the Weevil charging and leaping at me, and I dodging and ducking. I was trying to tire it out, so I could go on the offence, but this didn't seem to be working. The Weevil had a lot of endurance for something so ugly.

Time to change tactics.

As the creature leapt at me yet again, I did the same thing I had been doing; dodging under it, and getting a tail swipe in. Then, instead of simply waiting for it to charge again, like I had been doing, I attacked the thing again, stepping closer so I could apply more force to my swings. I cut the creature again and again, but it just kept coming at me. Finally, I was able to knock it out by hitting the back of the head with the flat part of my tail blade. This tactic had worked on many humans and Hork Bajir in the past.

The Weevil fell to the ground, twitched, then lay still. It was then that I was able to study it closer.

This Weevil was different than the others. For one thing, it was much bigger. Also, the head was different. It was less human looking then its cousins, and had larger fangs. I also noticed that it had a tiny stump of a tail extending out of the bottom of its spine. This creature was obviously the most dangerous Weevil these humans had.

Was it coincidence that it was the one I was put in with?

I highly doubted it.

After taking a bit of a break, I scanned the room for a security camera. Finding one, I immediately severed its connection to the wall with my tail blade. I didn't take kindly to being watched. Plus, I had an idea of how to escape this place, and didn't want them discovering my plan. As soon as I was satisfied that I was safe, I positioned myself near the front of the room, near the air holes that had been drilled into the door.

Then, I began to morph.

The morph I had in mind was not my favorite one, but was nevertheless an extremely useful one. I felt myself begin to shrink, getting closer to the floor with every second. My arms shrank into my torso as it melded with my front legs. My tail shriveled up until it was nothing more than a useless flap of skin, then was absorbed into my spine with a sickening sound. I felt my stalk eyes disappear and my main eyes go dark, then my vision changed dramatically. It was like I was looking into hundreds of TV's at once.

The fly morph was almost complete when I heard a scream.

I must have looked absolutely horrific at that moment. I was about ¾ fly, and was still morphing. Morphing wasn't a neat, orderly process. Things changed randomly and unexpectedly. Last time I had changed into a fly, my face had changed first. This time, it had been my size.

I glanced up with my fly eyes, and saw about 100 separate pictures of Gwynn, staring down at me with her hands over her mouth in shock.

Keeping my eyes on her, I quickly reversed the morph, changing back into my Andalite body. Thankfully, she was frozen in shock and surprise, and didn't move. I noticed that she had opened the door, and was now standing in front of it. If I simply rushed her, I could definitely push past her and out to freedom. I didn't though. No, it was wiser to stay.

"I-I-I just came to ask you why Owen found traces of animal DNA in your blood sample" she stammered once I was fully Andalite again, "…now I guess we know why."

I was quiet for a moment. They had discovered that I could morph, that proved to them that my species were in possession of very advanced technology…which, as the humans put it, was 'very not good'

/Would there be any use in asking you not to tell the others about this?/ I asked her.

She seemed to consider it for a moment, then bit her lip and shook her head. I sighed, letting my shoulders drop in defeat. Though I had expected this answer, it made it a lot harder for me. I could sense Gwynn searching for something to say next to me, and allowed her to do so.

"What-what exactly was that?" she finally burst out.

I paused. This was really the tipping point, as humans say. If I told them about my morphing abilities, I would have no choice but to trust them. It was a foolish, irrational thing to do, telling them, and almost all of my Andalite instincts screamed at me to keep my hypothetical mouth shut.

Almost all of them.

You don't know this, reader, but Andalites have an almost overwhelming sense of optimism. The raw, untrained Andalite mind is extremely naïve and attempts to see the good in everything. Even though I had gone through a few Earth years of training, I was still young and-though it pains me to admit it-slightly foolish.

/It is called morphing/ I finally said. Strangely, I seemed to feel a weight lift off my tail. Or shoulders. The human expression is weird. What great purpose do shoulders have? The Andalite expression makes more sense. I mean, our tail blades are-

Moving on.

Gwynn tilted her head, giving me a confused look. "Morphing? You mean, changing shape? Becoming other things? Like that fly? Wait, you can change into animals?"

I blinked, impressed. Of course. Gwynn and her team were 'alien specialists'. They had to be somewhat familiar with this kind of thing.

/Yes. I can morph into any animal I am able to touch./ I told her, careful not to say 'we'. Didn't need to expose my friends quite yet.

Gwynn's eyes widened. I am not very good at reading human facial expressions, but even I could tell that she was excited and intrigued. She glanced up the hallway. We were alone. Looking back towards me, she whispered "Can you show me? I mean, you'll have to show the rest of the group as well, but what about right now? Just you and I?"

She confused me a bit. Seeing as she was obviously going to tell the rest of her group anyways, why bother asking me to show her privately? The way she said it, too…it made me feel strange. As if she was going against orders. Well, she probably was. But…I don't know. I don't know how to explain it.

/Yes/ I said simply, after a brief pause.

Gwynn smiled a bit, taking a step away from me as if I were about to explode or something. "Just don't do the fly thing again, alright?"

Taking heed of her words, I decided to use my cheetah morph. It was a morph I particularly liked, and was fast and powerful in case anything went wrong. Closing my main eyes, I focused on the image of the cheetah that I had tucked away in my mind. Immediately, my legs began to get shorter. I felt my torso retract back into my body at the same time as my tail. My hooves softened and melted into paws, growing tough, doglike nails and spiked pads. As my face elongated and the features drastically changed, I looked up at Gwynn. Her face looked a bit terrified, but also extremely interested. The morph was almost complete when my fur started to change, turning from blue to golden and black quickly.

When the morph was done, I turned my sharp cheetah senses onto the woman standing in front of me. I could smell her fear, but also her happiness at the new knowledge. I could barely hear her heartbeat, though I could tell that it was racing.

"A-Ax?" she asked nervously. I could tell why. She was faced with 130 pounds of pure muscle, a big cat perfectly capable of killing her at any instant.

/Yes, it is me/ I told her. I walked towards her slowly, my eyes flickering down the hallway. Escape would be possible, perhaps even easy. I was faster and stronger than any human. Though the alien weaponry that Jack had promised they had still worried me.

"Wow…" Gwynn murmured, watching me walk circles around her. Cheetahs didn't really like standing still. "That must be incredible."

/It is./ I replied.

I felt light fingertips brush the tops of my bony shoulders. The cheetah inside of me stiffened instantly, instinctively.

When you morph an animal, you not only take control of the animal's body, but its instincts as well. For example, when I morphed my main bird of prey morph, the Northern Harrier, the desire to hunt and kill small animals sometimes overwhelms me.

The seagull is also a good example. Seagulls are scavengers by nature, and will eat anything and everything they can get. My human friends say seagulls remind them of me. I do not know whether to take offense at that. Anyway, when you morph the seagull, suddenly a great wave of hunger just washes over you. For a moment or two after the morph is complete, there isn't much choice but to surrender to the instincts.

The cheetah wanted to pounce onto Gwynn, pin her down, and consume her. I was used to this though, and contained the urge.

"This is incredible." Gwynn murmured, still stroking my soft fur. Not trusting my ability to contain the cheetah's murderous instincts, I pulled out of arms reach, planning to morph back.

"Gwynn?" a voice called. I recognized it as Ianto. I hardly had time to react, let alone morph back, before he was standing in front of us. Seeing me, he took several steps back, yelling curse words, some of which I hadn't learned yet. Filing them into my brain to use later, I also retreated, beginning to morph back.

"Ianto!" Gwynn said "Chill out! It's Aximili, okay?"

Ianto gaped at me until I finished my demorph, then rounded on Gwynn. "What were you thinking?" he demanded. "Do you know how easily he could've killed you and gotten away?"

It was then that I believed he realized that I could still do this, if I desired, and pulled out a primitive human gun.

"Back in the cell." he ordered me, aiming the gun at my head. I complied, my hooves ringing on the concrete floor. Without another word, he jerked his head at Gwynn, and the two left the cell block.

For a while after they left, I simply paced around my cell. Janet the Weevil stirred once, but a quick blow with the flat of my tail blade sent it (her?) back into unconsciousness.

Finally, I decide to try my plan again. I was being foolish. I needed to escape, and I needed to escape now. I shouldn't have told them about the morphing technology. I shouldn't have even told them my name. Stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid, Aximili!

Internally berating myself, I morph to fly, completing the morph this time. It took me a moment to get control of the fly's crazy, frightened instincts, but once I did, I flew to the small holes in the door.

Flying as a fly is different than flying as a bird. Flies go extremely fast for how small they are. A fly might not seem like they are going very quickly when you are watching them at normal size, but when you actually are the fly…it is seriously incredible speed.

Forgive me if I sounded a bit simple during that last paragraph. I was trying not to go into 'advanced science mode' as my friends call it. Most of the time, my explanations of more complicated science go straight over my friends' heads. None of them have fallen asleep yet, but I would not be surprised if they did. It really isn't that hard to understand. Humans. Sometimes I wonder what it's like in their odd little brains.

Once I reached the closest air hole, I peered down the hallway the best I could with terrible, strange, broken up fly vision. Imagine you were standing in front of a wall of TV's, with all of them showing the same pictures. That is what fly vision is like.

As I buzzed down the hallway, I continued scolding myself. Had my time on Earth made me soft? It had taken me months to fully trust my Animorph friends, even after they had saved my life, and yet I was willing to immediately trust a group of strangers who were holding me captive?

I thought back on my earlier reasoning, and my self-shaming increased. I had been worried about this group tracking me down? I had an endless amount of human morphs to choose from in such a big city, and I was able to morph into a bird, for Seerow's sake. The previous fear of being trapped in a place far from home with no way to return? We had made it back home from planets outside of even my home galaxy before. The fear of alien weaponry? That seemed like the most rational concern of the bunch, yet even it seemed foolish. I was a fly. Who would shoot a fly? Moreover, who had the ability to shoot a fly?

The doorway at the top of the stairs was closed, but I had no trouble squeezing underneath it. It was then that I found myself in an unfamiliar room with terrible fly sight and hearing, and an ever decreasing time limit.

I will spare you the tedious details, but I eventually found a window I could escape from. As I flew through it, I felt the vibrations of feet running frantically to and fro. My captors must have noticed that I was missing.

My next challenge was to find somewhere to demorph. I couldn't cover much ground in fly morph, and the internal clock that all Andalites had was telling me that I had a little under an hour left until I was trapped permanently in fly morph.

And I would rather die than spend the rest of my life as an insect.

Flying down to the ground, I began to search for somewhere, anywhere, to demorph. I began to grow frantic when I found nothing. Everywhere was much too open! Currently, from what I could tell by the smell, I was in the middle of a highway. Cars passed over me, moving extremely fast, but also slowly.

Science. Do not ask me to explain it unless you are prepared to waste approximately four pages on ramblings that will make no sense to you.

The smell of the highway was displeasing to my fly brain. It smelled of gas and tar and concrete. The fly wanted garbage. Some kind of human waste to consume. I tried to force the disgusting thoughts aside. I needed to focus on figuring out which way was up at the moment. The force of the cars blowing by was knocking me in all directions wildly.

Wait.

Smell.

Garbage.

It was highly likely that if garbage was to be found in this area, it was in an alley. Alleys were perfect for morphing.

I spread my fly senses as far as they could go, which wasn't far. The sound and vibration and smell of the highway threw me off as well. But eventually, my fly brain located something sickly sweet, rotting, and absolutely delectable to this primitive mind.

I followed that smell as if my life depended on it. Which it did. Finally, I reached the source of the odor. A garbage can. I could tell by the rim I had landed on, shiny and made out of metal. That was what human garbage cans looked like, correct?

I didn't care. All I wanted to do was demorph.

Landing on the ground beside the can, I began the reverse morph as quickly as I could. The moment my stalk eyes shot up out of my head, I scanned the area.

Just my luck. An empty alleyway, away from the highway and prying human eyes. When I was fully Andalite again, I took a moment to rest, then began my human morph. Morphing drains you. It takes a lot of energy to physically change bodies, that was for sure.


End file.
